Budget Deal Trims Bomber, Destroyer, Missile and Drone Programs

U.S. lawmakers wasted little time in identifying which programs to trim as part of a bipartisan budget deal that required cutting $5 billion from the 2016 defense budget.

Leaders of congressional defense committees -- including Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Rep. William "Mac" Thornberry, R-Texas, who heads the counterpart panel in the House, on Tuesday released a list of 98 programs that were targeted for $4.99 billion in reductions, from the controversial effort to train and equip moderate Syrian forces to the Navy Fleet Band's national tours.

The single biggest area of savings -- more than $1 billion -- came from adjusted estimates for fuel costs, which are lower than expected. Other top areas identified for reductions include line items for the Pentagon headquarters, Armycivilian workforce, Army readiness and counter-terrorism partnership fund, according to a ranking compiled by Military​.com.

On the modernization front, the biggest acquisition programs in the list include the Air Force's new Long Range Strike Bomber, or LRS-B, recently won by Northrop Grumman Corp. (with $230 million in reductions); the Navy's DDG-51 destroyer effort led by General Dynamics Corp. and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. ($150 million); the Army's PAC-3 missile segment enhancement developed by Lockheed Martin Corp. ($100 million); the Air Force's MQ-9 Reaper made by General Atomics ($80 million); and the Missile Defense Agency's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense built by Lockheed ($50 million).

The reduction to the new program to develop a fleet of next-generation bombers was because the Air Force delayed awarding a contract by several months from the spring to the fall, so the additional money wasn't needed. It wasn't immediately clear why the other efforts were targeted.

The adjustments are included in an updated version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2016, which has been introduced in the House.

The full list of the programs, sorted by rank of biggest reduction, is below: